House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks to the news media about the fiscal cliff at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. / Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press

By David Espo

Associated Press

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President Barack Obama waves to the media as he walks from Marine One to the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012, in Washington, as he returns from Walter Reed National Military Medial Center in Bethesda, Md., where he visited injured military members. / Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press

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WASHINGTON -- Confronted with a revolt among the rank and file, House Republicans abruptly put off a vote tonight on legislation allowing tax rates to rise for households earning $1 million or more, complicating attempts to avoid a year-end "fiscal cliff" that threatens to send the economy into recession.

In a brief statement, House Speaker John Boehner said the bill "did not have sufficient support from our members to pass." At the same time, he challenged President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to work on legislation to avert the fiscal cliff.

"The Senate must now act," said Boehner, R-Ohio.

Emerging from a hurriedly-called evening meeting of House Republicans, Ohio Rep. Steve LaTourette said Boehner had told lawmakers he's "going to call the president, and he's going to go down and talk to him and maybe they can hammer something out."

There was no immediate response from either the White House or Reid's office.

The legislation was crafted to prevent tax increases set to kick in Jan. 1 on tens of millions of Americans. But another provision that would have let rates rise for those at the upper income range — a violation of long-standing Republican orthodoxy — triggered the opposition of anti-tax lawmakers inside the party.

The abrupt turn of events left precious little time for divided government to prevent across-the-board tax increases and deep spending cuts from taking effect with the new year. Economists say the combination threatened a return to recession for an economy that has been recovering slowly from the last one.

The House will not meet again until after Christmas, if then, and the Senate is expected to meet briefly Friday, then not reconvene until next Thursday.

The fiscal cliff issue has dominated the post-election session of Congress. More broadly, it marks the end of a tumultuous two-year period that began when tea party-backed Republicans roared into the House demanding lower taxes, only to be asked by their leadership to bless higher tax rates at upper incomes.

Boehner said tonight's legislation -- he'd dubbed it Plan B -- marked a move to "protect as many American families and small businesses as possible from the tax hikes that are already scheduled to occur" with the new year.

Referring to one of the core themes of Obama's re-election campaign, he said the president has called for legislation to protect 98% of the American people from a tax hike.

"Well, today we're going to do better than that," he said of the measure that raises total taxes by slightly more than $300 billion in a decade. "Our bill would protect 99.81% of the American people from an increase in taxes."

Democrats said that by keeping tax rates unchanged below $1 million -- Obama wants the level to be $400,000 -- Republicans had turned the bill into a tax break for the wealthy. They also accused Republicans of crafting their measure to impose a tax increase on 11 million middle-class families.

"This is a ploy, not a plan," said U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich. He accused Republicans of being "deeply cynical," saying the legislation would scale back some education and child tax credits.

A companion bill on the evening's House agenda, meant to build GOP support for the tax bill, called for elimination of an estimated $97 billion in cuts to the Pentagon and certain domestic programs in a decade. It cleared the House on a partisan vote of 215-209 and is an updated version of legislation that passed a little more than six months ago.

Those cuts would be replaced with savings totaling $314 billion, achieved through increases in the amount federal employees contribute toward their pensions and through cuts in social programs such as food stamps and the health care law that Obama signed earlier in his term.

Ironically, the votes were set in motion earlier in the week, after Boehner and Obama had significantly narrowed their differences on a compromise to avoid the fiscal cliff.

Republican officials said that members of the GOP leadership had balked at the terms that were emerging. Democrats said Boehner's abrupt decision to shift to his Plan B -- legislation drafted unilaterally by Republicans -- reflected a calculation that he lacked support from his own rank and file to win the votes needed for the type of agreement he was negotiating with the president.

Asked at a news conference a few hours before the scheduled vote whether that were so, Boehner avoided a direct answer.

"Listen, the president knows that I've been able to keep my word on every agreement we've ever made," he said.

At the same time, Boehner hinted broadly that however Democrats end up responding to the legislation he placed before the House, it will not be the end of the attempt to keep the economy from reaching the fiscal cliff.

"Our country faces serious challenges. The president and I in our respective roles have a responsibility to work together to get them resolved. I expect that we'll continue to work together."

Obama made it clear on Wednesday that he, too, is prepared for further negotiations, and numerous officials in both parties in the Senate predicted that might happen quickly after the votes in the House.

The tax bill would prevent scheduled increases from taking effect Jan. 1 on all income under $1 million. Above that, the current rate of 35% would rise to 39.6% -- the level in effect more than a decade ago when then-President George W. Bush signed tax cuts into law that now are expiring.

The top rates also would rise on capital gains and dividends from 15% to 20%.

By any measure, the two bills in the House were far removed from the latest offers that officials said Obama and Boehner had tendered.

Obama is now seeking $1.2 trillion in higher tax revenue, down from the $1.6 trillion he initially sought. He also has softened his demand for higher tax rates on household incomes so they would apply to incomes of more than $400,000 instead of the $250,000 he cited during his successful campaign for a new term.

He also has offered more than $800 billion in spending cuts in a decade -- half of it from Medicare and Medicaid; $200 billion from farm and other benefit programs; $100 billion from defense, and $100 billion from a broad swath of government accounts ranging from parks to transportation to education.

In a key concession to Republicans, the president also has agreed to slow the rise in cost-of-living increases in Social Security and other benefit programs, at a savings estimated at about $130 billion in a decade.

By contrast, Boehner's most recent offer allowed for about $940 billion in higher taxes over a decade, with higher rates for annual incomes of more than $1 million.

His latest offer seeks about $1.2 trillion in spending cuts, not counting the change in the cost-of-living adjustment that Obama has said he can accept. He is seeking $600 billion in savings from Medicare and Medicaid, $200 billion from other benefit programs and $300 billion from a range of government accounts.